Thursday, April 27, 2006

News Flash For Tony Snow: Racism Will Always Be A 'Big Deal' In America

By MARC McDONALD

For incoming White House press secretary Tony Snow, racism may well be no "big deal" in America today.

If, like Snow, you're an affluent, middle-aged white male from a cushy, comfortable upper middle class background and you live in a luxury gated community, it's indeed likely that the ugly specter of racism rarely intrudes into your life.

But here's a news flash for Snow: racism will ALWAYS be a big deal in the U.S., a nation where millions of African people died in hideous conditions during the four centuries of the slave trade.

Indeed, the closer one looks at Snow's idiotic comments about race, the more offensive and troubling they are.

"Racism is not that big of a deal anymore. No sensible person supports it."

Is Snow suggesting that "sensible" people supported racism in the past?

The fact is, pampered, affluent, white people like Snow have never understood the impact and history of racism in this country. Countless times, during debates, I've heard conservatives claim that "slavery ended a long time ago" and that blacks have been more than compensated since then.

Here's a news flash for all conservatives out there: African-Americans were in fact never compensated in any way for the four centuries of slavery. And what's more, bigotry and racism in America hardly ended with slavery. Repressive, racist Jim Crow laws were, in fact, the law of the land for a century after slavery ended. Thousands of African-Americans were tortured and murdered by cheering lynch mobs for many decades after slavery for no other reason than they had black skin.

It's highly ironic than Snow and other conservative commentators routinely downplay the impact of racism in America.

In Snow's comments, he said his view that "racism isn't that big a deal anymore" is an "unmentionable secret."

Here's the real unmentionable secret in America today. It's the fact that the Republican Party has cynically used race to divide and manipulate the American people. Most Republicans I know privately harbor simmering hostility toward blacks (even if they shy away from using the "N" word in polite company). Many would never vote Democrat, simply because it's a party that backs affirmative action.

Here's a news flash for all you African-American-hating, anti-affirmative action Republicans. Your hero, George W. Bush is never going to end affirmative action. Do you seriously think that the GOP is going to give up its best wedge issue; an issue that it has cynically used countless times to rally the troops? If you believe this, you're naive enough to believe that Bush gives a damn about anyone who isn't among his wealthy, powerful supporters.

Here's another news flash for all you "angry white males" who feel frustrated and oppressed these days. You don't know know the meaning of the word oppression.

8 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I'm sorry, but racism is the overarching chimera that clings to this nation as a male dog trying to get that bitch.sorry about the mixing of metaphors but this is serious shit.If we can't or won't get through this we are not worthy of anything.

If Rush Limbaugh was a low-income black male from the ghetto and was charged with the same crime Limbaugh has been charged with, does anyone doubt that he would be sent to prison and would be doing hard time for many years? And does anyone seriously believe a rich white man like Limbaugh will ever do any time at all for his crimes?

Oh really? So when was it that they kidnapped millions of white people and then forced them at gunpoint to work for zero pay for the rest of their lives, doing backbreaking labor? I must have missed that chapter of U.S. history. When was it that they deliberately and blatantly discriminated against white people in the workplace and the justice system (as is the case to this day).

>>Blacks are 12% of the US population but commit approx 52% of all crimes committed in the US.<<This may or may not be the case. Yet, if you look at the conditions that many black people exist in, (poverty, poor schools, lack of opportunities, and other factors) that contribute to the crime statistics for mostly young black males (not dismissing the oposite sex and other ages) it goes a long way to explain the crime rate among them. Poverty makes even white people steal or commit crimes. If we are to continue using history as an excuse for our behavior we will never improve our relationships with people of other races. One would think that the human race would have gotten smarter at some point but aparently the oposite is true. Judge each person on their merits not their color. Start each day anew without bigotry, bias, or racism. Sounds like a tall order, but we must start somewhere if we are to succeed.

3. People like you are the true racist if you think you have it this bad in this country then leave to a all black nation.

4. If you think George Bush is a racist bigot your clearly very ignorant he has given more to blacks then any other president in history spending literally billions on black scholarship programs. That mostly go to ALL black talk about racism.

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About This Blog

Welcome to BeggarsCanBeChoosers.com, the progressive political blog of Marc McDonald. A Texas journalist, McDonald worked for 15 years for several newspapers, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, before he quit his day job and set up shop in cyberspace in 1995. McDonald's articles have appeared in a number of popular progressive Web sites, including Crooks and Liars, The Reaction, Buzzflash.com, Salon.com, OpEdNews.com, The Neil Rogers Show and The Raw Story. McDonald's Web articles have also been featured and reviewed by various national and international media, including CNN Headline News, the BBC, CBS, the Washington Post, USA Today and many more. On June 3, 2011, I was interviewed on the progressive radio program, "Voices at Work." Go here to hear my interview with host Ron Gonyea. I am always available for media interviews on progressive issues. Contact me here.